What the Frack is wrong with the NY Times or more specifically Joe Nocera at the NY Times. Did Steve Jobs drown his puppy and run off with his Wife too? Not sure how else to explain the "Article" he posted titled - Verizon Deal May Expose iPhone Flaws. To say it is a flawed post filled with mis-information and is highly biased is really understating how bad this "Article" is. Did the NY Times fire all the editors? To start we have this quote

"Yet for all that it offers, the iPhone has always been plagued by serious drawbacks. The “phone” part of the iPhone has never worked very well, dropping calls with annoying regularity. Even when the phone works, the sound quality is often substandard. You would think in an age when fewer people are using landlines this would matter. Apparently not."

What is not mentioned by Joe is that the iPhone works very well in other countries on other networks. And even in the US the iPhone 4 works very well depending on where you live. NY and San Fran - not so much. But in Kansas City where I live the iPhone 4 is rock solid and the sound quality of the calls is far better than my Wife's smartphone on T-Mobile. I have found the iPhone 4 works in areas my iPhone 3GS never worked.

Joe continues with these gems:

"the iPhone’s lack of a raised keyboard makes it next to impossible to do serious e-mailing. And users have to worry constantly about battery life; if they’re not judicious, the iPhone’s battery can be drained by noon."

Ummm - WOW. Really Joe you are going back to 2007 to bitch about the lack of a Physical Keyboard? That horse has not just been beaten to death - the corpse has long since decomposed and and turned to dust which was then blown away. It is 2011 and to date over 160 Million iOS devices with the virtual keyboard have been sold. Joe - GET OVER IT. Per the second part of that quote - Battery Life - What the Frack? Really - you are complaining about the iPhone's battery life - well then you are about the only one. The iPhone 4 has great battery life, and better than almost all other full screen smart phones. Battery Life ? Joe? Really? Please let us know exactly what other full screen smart phones have a better battery life. Oh I will do that for you - see this link. Looks like only the Droid X has better battery life. Battery Life is not a complaint I get from my listeners. Surely you are not complaining about the lack of a removable battery? If so see comments above about 2007 and the dead horse.

"They never make design compromises at Apple. They make consumer compromises. Yet consumers have always been willing to overlook those compromises so they can claim they own some of the coolest products on the planet."

Joe it appears you just don't get it (understatement of the year). Even if people were just buying the iPhone because it was cool - that would not explain why it turns up on top of EVERYconsumer survey for customer satisfaction. Regardless of the motivation of why people are buying the iPhone - they clearly are very happy once they do get the device. I will not get into the condescending message your quote sends - but clearly you think iPhone owners are mindless drones. Which obviously hit you pretty hard when you found out your son was one of those mindless drones - since he wants the iPhone too. Luckily Joe for your son intelligence comes from the Mother - and that is a better explanation on why your son wants the iPhone.

"As much as anything, the success of Android is what finally pushed Apple into the arms of Verizon Wireless, which got much better terms than AT&T. ... In truth, Apple needed Verizon Wireless more than Verizon Wireless needed Apple. The deal the two companies cut reflects that fact."

Is that the deal that does not put any Crapware on the iPhone and does not put the Verizon Logo on the iPhone? You say "In Truth" like it is fact. But what about the fact that AT&T was adding more subscribers than Verizon every quarter. Reality is both needed each other - but Verizon needed the iPhone more than Apple needed Verizon. Subscriber growth is the life blood for carriers and the iPhone is the key reason why AT&T continually was beating Verizon.

"Mainly, though, the Verizon Wireless subscriber is simply used to a different kind of experience. If they all migrate immediately to the iPhone, then truly I will raise the white flag."

White flags are something you waive in Battle. Obviously Joe, you feel you are in a war with the iPhone - and that comes through perfectly clear in your very biased article. However, what is also very clear based on your mis-information and lack of any real research is that you showed up to a gun fight with just a knife. Remember when you are waiving your white flag to raise it high above your head we would not want you shot by one of those mindless iPhone buying drones or your own son. Metaphorically speaking that is.

What the Frack is wrong with Consumer Reports. Did Steve Jobs drown their puppies before running off with their wives? Because Consumer Reports clearly has become biased in their reporting of the iPhone. And this is really clear with the BS post they put up on the 11th.

They recommended against the Verizon iPhone because it is "middle aged" - ie a new one is likely coming in June - and yes we know that - but that there are new versions of phones from all other manufactures released in shorter periods was not mentioned. Mac Observer had this great observation to make about Consumer Reports "Middle Aged" comments.

By the reasoning they supplied, no one should ever buy a new phone unless it’s the iPhone, and only when it’s a few weeks old.

Consumer Reports also pointed out the issues with CDMA - but did not say that is true of all the smart phones on Verizon. And the craziest of their issues was:

"the iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch screen in an era where the number of smart phones with 4-inch-plus screens has swelled"

Huh - What the Frack? Did Consumer Reports mention the Retina display has better resolution than the two 4 inch smart phones on Verizon - NOPE. And did they mention those two 4 inch smart phones came out in June & September - You know being "Middle Aged"That was also be a big NOPE.

Did Consumer Reports - report about the lack of Crapware on the iPhone on Verizon - and that it is the only SmartPhone on Verizon without the Crapware - NOPE. They did point out there are 4G Phones out there and listed the CDMA iPhone as a disadvantage compared to 4G. Did Consumer Reports talk about the sparse coverage of 4G at this time? or the battery sucking issues with 4G phones? or that 4G phones on Verizon will not be out until mid-2011?. NOPE, NOPE and NOPE!!!

What did they report about of substance? Well that is not clear - other than they don't like the iPhone 4 and they miss their puppies and wives. When all is said and done I think Antenna Gate and the iPhone 4 will have taken a much bigger toll on Consumer Reports than Apple. At the post on Consumer Reports - the comments are filled with people saying they are canceling their subscriptions to Consumer Reports - and Rightly so.

The Verizon iPhone rumor started back on November 27th 2007. I have since that time been saying 2012 for the Verizon iPhone. I am now changing my tune and officially jumping on the Verizon iPhone rumor Bandwagon. I think the Verizon iPhone will be announced on 1/11/11 at 11:00 AM ET at Verizon's Special event - Just 1141 days since the original rumor surfaced. Here are the reasons why I think this will finally happen.

1. The Verizon Event is 2 days after CES - why not have the event at CES with all the press there already. It would mean the event needs to be something that does not fit in with CES - Like an Apple Announcement.2. Gizmodo is not invited to the event.3. MG Sigler is invited - personally and not through tech crunch. MG is the biggest iPhone proponent at Tech Crunch and sometimes the only iPhone Proponent at Tech Crunch. 4. The Event is in NY - the city that is by far the worst of all the Cities for the iPhone on AT&T. What a nice little Jab at AT&T to have it there. I mean invite the press most of which have iPhones to the one place their iPhones will not work. Both Evil and Brilliant at the same time.

5. AT&T just lowered the pricing of the iPhone 3GS to $49, plus you had the lower prices in December for the iPhone from Radio Shack, Best Buy, Sams Club and Radio Shack again. Seems like AT&T is trying to get as many people locked into two more years as they could before the Verizon announcement.

The Stars are all aligning for a Verizon iPhone announcement on 1/11/11 at 11:00 AM. If Verizon does not announce the iPhone at the event, they will have jumped the PR shark even more so than Apple did with their lame Beatles Announcement last year. But at least with that Apple had the good foresight not to invite the press to a special event - just a web page.